The Spiritual Israel Church and Its Army

Bishop Derrick Fields founded this congregation of Ethiopian Israelites in Alabama in the early twentieth century. The congregation moved to Detroit during the Great Migration and incorporated in 1938 during the kingship of Bishop William Dixon. I-75's construction in the 1950s forced its relocation from 5434 Hastings Street in Black Bottom. Archbishop Martin Tumpkin led the Spiritual Israel Church and its Army in buying this building in 1960, making it the headquarters of all of the church's temples. Built in 1911 by the Amity and Island View Lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, this structure served the Odd Fellows as a meeting hall. The Knights of Columbus purchased and renamed the building Gabriel Richard Hall in 1942 and used it with other fraternal orders until 1960.